Ted Stevenot, president of the Ohio Liberty Coalition, plans on making an official announcement next week.

Tom Zawistowski, another big tea party figure in Ohio, says Stevenot has a wealth of statewide leadership experience. Zawistowski says Stevenot was at the front of the Tea Party movement when he helped create his group in Cincinnati.

According to Zawistowski, Stevenot differs from Kasich when it comes to Medicaid expansion, Common Core education standards and the severance tax on oil companies. But above all that, Zawistowski says Stevenot’s gubernatorial bid is about giving the people of Ohio another option.

“We have found in the Tea Party movement is that part of the problem -- part of the reason our electoral process no longer works -- is because the two major ‘parties’ -- and I put parties in quotes because they’re not political parties, by their own admission they’re election machines -- that they have hijacked the electoral process. Their goal is to make sure that you have no one to vote for except for the people they choose.”

Brenda Mack, former president of the Ohio Black Republicans Association is expected to be announced as Stevenot’s running mate.